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A28    SCIENCE
                   Saturday 10 June 2017


















                   U.S. war veteran now fighting to save Africa’s elephants


            KHALED KAZZIHA                                                                                                      tion  immediately,  rather
            Associated Press                                                                                                    than write it up in reports at
            NAIROBI,  Kenya  (AP)  —  A                                                                                         the end of a day’s patrol-
            decorated  U.S.  war  vet-                                                                                          ling.
            eran  with  two  decades’                                                                                           “The Kenya Wildlife Service
            experience  in  military  in-                                                                                       and other many conserva-
            telligence,  Lt.  Col.  Faye                                                                                        tion groups are doing fan-
            Cuevas spent half her ca-                                                                                           tastic  conservation  work,”
            reer  providing  intelligence                                                                                       Cuevas  said.  “However,
            support  to  U.S.  counter-                                                                                         the reality is that there are
            insurgencies  in  Iraq,  Af-                                                                                        other  challenges  —  from
            ghanistan and the Horn of                                                                                           a  cyber  perspective,  from
            Africa. Now she is using her                                                                                        a  global  criminal  network
            expertise  to  fight  a  differ-                                                                                    perspective  —  that  really
            ent kind of conflict: the war                                                                                       necessitate  security  ap-
            on wildlife poaching.                                                                                               proaches  integrated  into
            Calling  herself  “the  ac-                                                                                         conservation strategies.”
            cidental  conservationist,”                                                                                         The number of Africa’s sa-
            Cuevas,  an  air  force  of-                                                                                        vannah  elephants  had
            ficer and a trained lawyer                                                                                          dropped to about 350,000
            originally  from  Le  Center,                                                                                       by   2014    because    of
            Minnesota, is not your typi-                                                                                        poaching, according to a
            cal  wildlife  enthusiast.  She                                                                                     recent study.
            is  determined  to  use  her   In this photo taken Friday, May 19, 2017, Faye Cuevas of the International Fund for Animal Welfare   Wildlife  crime  is  worth  $10
            skills,  honed  in  conflicts   (IFAW), speaks to The Associated Press in Nairobi National Park, Kenya.             billion to $20 billion a year
            all over the world, to help                                                                        Associated Press  globally,  according  to  In-
            save  the  planet’s  remain-                                                                                        terpol.  Kenya,  a  major
            ing  wild  elephants.  “If  you   it  resembles  a  war  in  any-  to predict and prevent the  greed.”              source country for traffick-
            start to really untangle how   thing  but  name,”  Cuevas   next bomb attack.          She realized that she could   ing  in  elephant  ivory  and
            poaching happens — how       said.  In  the  U.S.  Air  Force,   Cuevas  can  pinpoint  the  use the “left of boom” con-  rhino  horn,  has  strongly
            poachers are armed, how      Cuevas  worked  on  Amer-    moment  she  realized  that  cept  to  help  wildlife  rang-  supported  a  total  ban  on
            they’re  connected  into     ica’s  controversial  drone   she wanted to fight poach-  ers get “left of kill.”      both for decades. The gov-
            larger  networks  and  how   program,  collecting  intel-  ing. “The first time that I saw  Enter  tenBoma  —  or  “10   ernment’s  Kenya  Wildlife
            those  networks  can  move   ligence on individuals and   an elephant in the wild was  homesteads” — which uses     Service  is  working  closely
            ivory and horn on a global   organizations    identified   in  Amboseli  National  Park  technology to  pull  togeth-  with Cuevas.
            scale, who protects them?    as  threats.  “Getting  left  of   here  in  Kenya  two  years  er  diverse  sources  of  infor-  “There’s excitement in the
            Who  provides  logistics?  —   boom” was the term used    ago,” she said. “It was life-  mation,  from  rangers  to   team because we’ve seen
                                                                      changing.” “At the current  conservation  groups.  She    the  results”  of  Cuevas’
                                                                      rate  of  elephant  decline,  analyzes the data to “cre-  work,  said  David  Karanja,
                                                                      my  6-year-old  daughter  ate value in information in     senior  warden  in  the  wild-
                                                                      won’t  have  an  opportu-    ways that it rises to the level   life  service’s  intelligence
                                                                      nity  to  see  an  elephant  in  of  intelligence.”  Together   department.
                                                                      the  wild  before  she’s  old  with the U.S.-based Interna-  TenBoma is currently being
                                                                      enough to vote,” she said.  tional Fund for Animal Wel-   tested in the Tsavo Conser-
                                                                      “Which  just  is  unaccept-  fare,  Cuevas  introduced    vation Area, which covers
                                                                      able to me, because if that  a  smartphone-based  soft-   over  42,000  sq.  kilometers
                                         Lipstixaruba@outlook.com
                                                                      is  the  case  then  we  have  ware app that allows rang-  (16,200  sq.  miles)  encom-
                                                                      nothing  to  blame  that  on  ers  and  field  investigators   passing two of Kenya’s big-
                                                                      but  human  apathy  and  to enter and share informa-      gest national parks.q
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